Legislature
set the maximum hours of labor for children to
55 a week and adopted a list of dangerous
occupations prohibited to children under 16.

1907

Child Labor in Industry

The
Street Trades Law was passed to regulate child
labor, specifically, children selling
newspapers in Milwaukee.

The first attempt at workers
compensation legislation came in 1909. Senator
Theodore W. Brazeau introduced a proposal to
provide compensation insurance. The senate
postponed the proposal indefinitely. The
legislature did, however provide for a joint
interim committee of 3 Senators and 4
Assemblymen to study such insurance.

1909

Senator Theodore W. Brazeau

The
Wisconsin Bureau of Labor Statistics is replaced
by a 3-member Industrial Commission.
The Commission spent $59,718 in its first year.

One
of the more notable Commissioners was John R.
Commons. Dr. Commons was a Economics
Professor at the University of Wisconsin.
Commons influenced a generation of people
who became involved in social reform and
progressive legislation.

A
reformer rather than a revolutionary, Commons
championed laws that protected workers while
preserving the efficiency of large-scale
industry. Effective labor legislation, he
maintained, could make the capitalist economic
system work in favor of workers as well as
employers. Commons' thinking influenced
Wisconsin's most important new labor laws,
especially industrial safety and unemployment
insurance. On occasion, Commons' University
classes became staging grounds for new
legislation. Many of his students, including Arthur
Altmeyer, became state or federal labor law
administrators.

Arthur J.
Altmeyer later became one of the most
important figures in the history of Social
Security. President Franklin
Roosevelt called him "Mr. Social
Security." The Social Security
Act was signed into law by President
Roosevelt in 1935.

The
Wisconsin legislature enacted more laws to
regulate hours, wages and employment conditions
of women and children.

Work week for children reduced
to 48 hours.

Work week for women set at 55
hours.

Other
industrial safety laws were passed.

Wisconsin
established free employment services in its
Milwaukee, Superior, LaCrosse and Oshkosh
Employment Offices. These employment services
were primarily local labor exchanges.

Nation's
first modern apprenticeship law that
included area vocational schools as a necessary
component of apprenticeship programs. 625
apprentices were indentured in the first year in
Wisconsin.

Nation's
first state constitutional Workmen's
Compensation Act (now Worker's Compensation)
guaranteeing injury compensation as a legal
right was enacted on May 3, 1911 and
became effective September 1st to be
administered by the Industrial Commission.
TheConstitutionality of the Act was upheld
by the Wisconsin Supreme Court on November 1,
1911 (and by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1926).

Workmen's Compensation Act Booklet

1911

Governor:
Francis Edward McGovern
(1911-1915)

First
head of the Wisconsin Industrial Commission:
Joseph D. Beck
(1911-1917)

The
first Wisconsin wage law was enacted in 1913 and
specified that a "living wage" must be
paid to women and minors. In enacting this law,
the Legislature specified that "every wage
paid or agreed to be paid by any employer to any
female or minor employee shall be not less than
a living wage." Administrative authority
was given to the Industrial Commission, which
was to use an advisory board equally
representing employers, employees and the public
in its determination of a "living
wage," thereby also necessitating
consideration of the cost of living. There were
several events which delayed the determination
of a living wage and contributed to a 6-year
lapse between the 1913 enactment of the law and
issuance of the first wage orders in 1919.

. . . The Industrial Commission
completed an extensive study in 1913- 1914 of
the working conditions and cost of living of
employed women in Wisconsin; and most pertinent
- the constitutionality of the Oregon Minimum
Wage Law (which was similar in principle to the
Wisconsin law) was being challenged in the
courts from 1914 to 1917, when a tie vote of the
U.S. Supreme Court sustained the Oregon
Law and thus helped clear the way for action in
Wisconsin.

1913

Additional
Commissioner:
Fred M. Wilcox (1913-1933)

Women Working in a FactoryPhoto Source: Wisconsin
Historical Society

In 1914,
the first building code in Wisconsin was adopted
to help in the enforcement of the safe place
statutes for all buildings and places of
employment, including factories, stores,
schools, theaters, churches, and hotels.
Inspection responsibilities also were given to
the commission. The Commission adopted the first
boiler code after boiler explosions increased.

.
. . World War I began . . .

1914

A
new Wisconsin apprenticeship law required
apprentices to attend school 5 hours a week, at
the employer's expense.

Current
Employment Statistics (CES) began, managed by
the United States Bureau of Labor
Statistics and Industrial Commission (the
program continues today!).

A
22-cent minimum wage was established for women
and minors 17 years of age and older.

1919

A petition presented May 1, 1919,
to the Industrial Commission by the Wisconsin
Federation of Labor, the Consumers League of
Wisconsin, and the Central Council of Social
Agencies of Milwaukee initiated a wage action by
the Commission. As required by law, the
action involved appointment of an Advisory Wage
Board and consideration of their recommendations
and findings, as well as those of the Commission
in its 1913-1914 cost of living study. After the
required public hearings were held, the commission
issued Wage Orders on June 27, 1919, and named
their effective date as August 1,1919.